How a Fallen iPhone X Resulted in my Falling Back in Love a Little with the iPhone 7

Thanks for this great post. I don't own an iPhone 10 but wish to comment a bit. First off, I think this is certainly a wake-up call for me. Although I never plan on even accidentally knocking my iPhone 7 off the desk or whatever, I suppose I am rather curious as to what would happen to it even with the protective casing that I got. A downstairs neighbor of mine actually did throw his iPhone on the floor in a fit of rage awhile back. That's kinda a story inandof itself, and he ended up paying bigtime. Back to me and my iPhone 7 though. I'm liking it more and more. I think I've gotten touch ID to work as advertised, sort of. I have slight manual dexterity issues, but I've found the gestures to be pretty easy if I have the phone on a flat surface such as one of my desks and when the thing isn't sliding around all over. But having said that, I think I'm perhaps getting better at performing the gestures when holding the thing in my hands for example. Regarding performance, I've had no issues thus far. The myriad of accessibility settings is definitely a big win for me and for other users.

Definitely unfortunate you dropped your X. Anyway, I've had an X since early January this year, and don't regret upgrading from the 6S plus. In my 8 years of owning iPhones, wow can't believe I've had iPhones since 2011, lol. I've never dropped my device on a hard surface, concrete, etc. Truthfully, I've only dropped it on carpet in my house and it's perfect. The all glass phone is nice, but it's a risk, if you accidentally drop your phone, it's bound to break/shatter. Unfortunate, I know, and you know now too. Also, did you have a case on your device? If not, get one. I can't stress some kind of case whether it be a battery case or some kind of iPhone case, you definitely need a case. Definitely can't stress to everyone the importance of a phone case, I don't care if it's bulky, accept this and learn from horror stories of people dropping their phones. Sorry if I sound demanding, but I think a case in this day and age is a necessary thing for people who own an iPhone.

I love my iPhone 7. I have the apple smart battery case and, while it adds a bit more bulk, I still have more battery power than most phones do in 2018. Combine that with the fact that this battery case allows me to use lightning accessories and voiceover tells me the percentage of each battery - the phone *and* the case, I'm happy. The total mAH for anyone interested, with my phone and case, amounts to 4500. 1900+2600. This is why if anyone is wanting extra batterylife, I highly recommend going with the 4.7 inch device. You'll thank me later as the plus models don't offer this particular case. It seems to hold up quite well, too - mine is now 2 years old and comes everywhere with me. The phones battery is still only at 92% thanks to the smart battery case taking most of the wear cycles.

That said, I bought the iPhone 7 256 gb outright. I have no regrets, but I also don't see myself upgrading for a long, long time. I don't think the x allows for a battery case. I'm well aware most phones get you through quite a lot with the batteries they have inside, but I'm also not constantly looking for a lightning to 3.5 mm jack that also has a lightning port for charging. I think that was the silliest thing apple has done in the history of mobile devices. I say that even though I've for the most part switched to bluetooth simply because having to make sure to keep a lightning to 3.5 mm adapter is really quite annoying and unnecessary. The Samsung galaxy s9 retains the headphone jack and I would argue that it remains one of the most elegant and beautiful phones to run your hands over that isn't an apple.

I haven't actually gotten my iPhone smashed though it has taken some pretty hefty tumbles. Not this one in particular but a 4s I had. Luckily there have been no cracked screens etc, but just to be safe I got apple care. Customer service is really quite steller.

I've been using an iPhone since 2009 and the introduction of the 3gs. iOS 11 really made me despise using it but it's gotten better with the introduction of iOS 12 beta. (Don't talk to me about watch OS 4, though...). Maybe my watch has something wrong but I'm really not a fan. Using a series 2.

"Similarly, I find the new one finger gestures for Notification Centre and Control Centre much easier than the old method of putting VoiceOver focus on the status bar and swiping up or down with three fingers"

you don't have to do that. put one finger on the status bar, wait for the tone and swipe down will get you to the notification center; put one finger above the home button, wait for the tone and swipe up to get to the control center.

nobody talks about apple pay, that's when touch id shines. click power button twice, authenticate with face id then move your phone to the card reader? what a lousy way to pay. with touch id, your just hold your finger on the home button, scan and done, one can do it even when one is extremely drunk.

i think the solid home button is one of apple's great invention, unfortunately apple seems to be abandoning it simply because they can't find a way to embed it onto the display.

Hi @Dave82, I can surely understand not wanting to put a case on your phone, and I was one of those persons who didn't want one either back when I got my first 4S, but after dropping it and cracking the screen, decided to bite the bullet and get one. I've tried many cases and most of them were always too bulky. But after upgrading my 4S to a 6 Plus, went out to search for a rugged but thin case and landed on a Spigen Tough Armor. Now you can get different types of Spigen cases, some thinner then others, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got the ToughArmor. It is rugged but still thin. Don't get me wrong, it does add a little bulk to the phone, but the phone still feels comfortable in yor hands and doesn't feel too bulky. Even after upgrading my 6 Plus to an 8 Plus, I still went back to the same Spigen case, and as before, the case is a little thinker but still feels great in the hand. I've dropped both my 6 Plus and 8 Plus at high distances and the phone survived without a scratch. When I say high I mean like 6 to 7 feet off the ground on a hard wood floor or a ceramic floor. I can't always Guaranty that the phone screen won't survive each time your phone drops, it all depends on how it hits the floor and on what exactly the phone lands on, but for most drops, a good case will protect your phone from damage. Now for some people, they can have their phones in no case at all and never drop it, but for some, like myself, I would rather not take the chance and always buy the AppleCare and a good solid case. Being completely, I don't have any shame in hiding the iPhone's beautifully designed look, as some tech journalist claim it anyways.

@Laboheme, I believe that the one finger gesture on the status bar and on the dock, just above the home button, those gestures have been around for quite a while. It actually took me some time to figure out how to properly do it correctly. For the longest time, I always did the three finger swipe down from the status bar. But one day was listening to a podcast, I believe over a year ago, and the host gave some pretty clear instructions on how to successfully do it and since then, that is how I usually access the notification centre and control centre.

Thanks again Dave for the wonderful article, very well written.

Hi,
As for a battery case for my iPhone X, I have a 8000 MAH battery case by a company called Zerolemon. Had it since january, and it's a pretty neat case. One thing that's interesting is you can take the battery out of the case completely recharge it if you wish, put it back int the case put the phone on top of the battery, and connect this dongle thing to the port in the battery inside the case and it'll charge your phone for quite a while before it needs a charge. Think i can get 3 or so days of recharging the phone if not used loads, but I am not exactly sure. One time I got a whole week without pluggin into a power bank to recharge, which was nice. Sure it adds bulk, but I don't give a crap about that, I want something that gives a punch and can run for a long time without being recharged. If anyone is interested, it's like $39 or so, and if the battery fails, I can just buy another case, swap the batteries from one case to another and "Bam" I'm good to go. Found on Amazon!

So, if the iPhone x is England and the iPhone 7 Croatia, we have a 2-1 win for Croatia but England make the final? Dave, if only you were in charge of the World Cup! As it is, you could probably get a job co-authoring the chapter of a textbook on the law of torts that deals with contributory negligence after your affair with the flowerpot. To business: I have only used Face ID on a demo iPhone X in the Apple Store. I got it to work something like 80 percent of the time after a little practice, perhaps 85 percent of the time. That's still a lot less than Touch ID which I would say works 999 times out of 1000. That was a deal-breaker for me, especially when you factor in the possibility that someone could unlock my iPhone while I was asleep or something similar—a possibility which the very helpful Apple employee in the store acknowledged as a weakness. This was a shame as I liked so much else about the iPhone X. With Face ID being as it is, however, I couldn't buy it.By the way, the reason I was in the Apple Store on that occasion was that my iPhone 7 had been stolen on the Tube—first time I've had a device lost, damaged or stolen in eight years of iPhone ownership. I don't have insurance for the iPhone either, but still conider myself ahead of the game even after purchase of the iPhone 8 as a replacement. Hang on, I almost forgot: did I say my iPhone 7 was stolen on the Tube? Well, I thought it was, but a week later I discovered that Transport For London had it in their lost property office. So there are still some decent members of the public out there who will hand lost valuables in, which is great to know.

I electe3d to go with the iPhone 8, and I'm glad. I haven't even attempted the face ID part, but either it was the oddness that was this person's screen protector or I just didn't understand how to make it work, but I could not, for the life of me, get the swipe up from the bottom with one finger gestures to work. I think I managed to get to app switcher once out of the 10 times I attempted it. Mind you, I am not a new iPhone user... got my first 4S I believe in 2012. I'll be hanging onto this phone with a physical home button as long as I can and dreading when they take it out of all future models. Hopefully, by then, I'll have played with enough devices to master the single finger swipe up to reliably get to the app switcher by then.

It really sucks it hurts to swipe. I would be at least hopeful that Apple will bring a Touch ID phone back at some point, even with edge to edge display. They already have the button ready to go, it’s on the iPad Air right now. That has a top button with Touch ID. So the development money has already been spent. Maybe a future iPhone SE or with any luck, the entire line of phones will get both Touch ID and Face ID and you can choose or have double security. Fingers crossed.

I think the iPhone 7 Plus in Jet black that I had was possibly my favourite phone. There’s a few contenders but the insane speed increase over the 6s Plus, beautiful finish, light weight, haptic home button, great speaker for the time all added up to be a truly brilliant phone in its day.